03.9.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for child abuse including sexual assault, and pervasive language.
Release Date: 2009-11-06
Starring: Geoffrey Fletcher, Sapphire (novel)
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.weareallprecious.com/
03.9.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for some language.
Release Date: 2009-10-02
Starring: Michael Moore
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.capitalismalovestory.com/
‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ is like a Sylvester Stallone ‘Rocky’ film – it leaves you wanting to kick some ass, in this case, Corporate America’s ass. Documentarian and funny man Michael Moore is up to his old tricks as he combats the evil forces in the USA in an entertaining and factual manner, including revelations that might twitch your spine. Capitalism isn’t as good as ‘Sicko’, but it manages to deliver a punch right in the patriotic gut.
The premise has Mr. Moore exploring the price that America pays for its love of capitalism, but the principal appeal of the film is Moore’s quest to uncover the why’s and who’s of the economic collapse, and even though he does this with human affection and charm, he doesn’t necessarily tell us what to do with the information. Consequently, we’re left asking questions with no right or wrong answers. I almost wish he would’ve tread a little further and had someone arrested – caught on film! No such luck, but I can’t say he didn’t try. To most proletariats, Moore is their champion and so with each documentary, the expectations for him to do something about his findings become more demanding.
At the end, Moore is in the business of informing and entertaining us with his topical stories on our governments fallacies, but he wants us to do something about. He feels he started it, we should finish it. Will we? Stay tuned.
03.5.2010 | By Jack Rico |
‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ is a very good film that brings together some wonderfully gritty acting, an engrossing storyline and a riveting ending. There are some twists that you’ll enjoy and overall it’ll remind you of films such as ‘Crash’ and ‘Serpico’.
03.3.2010 | By Alex Florez |
Rated: PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.
Release Date: 2009-10-16
Starring: Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers, Maurice Sendak (book)
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://wherethewildthingsare.warnerbros.com/
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The night that ‘Max put on a wolf suit and started doing one shenanigan after another’ marked the moment in my childhood when I let my imagination run wild. I’m referring to the boy in that fantasy book written by Maurice Sendak, who later finds himself in a forest ‘Where The Wild Things Are.’
When I found out that the filmmaker Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) had the intention of adapting a classic of children’s literature to the big screen, I was easily excited. However, the great expectations that came along with the making of the film were enough to worry me. How loyal would the film be to the book? And most importantly, how would they stretch out a story of just a few pages so that it would work as a movie?
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the book is about a boy named Max who gets sent to bed early for his bad behavior. But he ends up escaping to a forest where he is accompanied by a family of wild creatures. As is traditional in children’s books, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ has a moral to its story, but I remember it mostly for it’s surrealist world. Something Jonze’s film also succeeds at, but regrettably as a movie ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ falls short.
Here’s the problem: the film doesn’t have enough plot to push the story forward. Since the book is short, Jonze has no choice but to come up with something to further develop the movie. However, the filmmaker doesn’t risk quite enough to make things interesting. Instead he opts to show us filler – like extended sequences of Max playing with his monsters. And that’s just not filmmaking. Although the costuming, the special effects and the wonderful soundtrack do an amazing job of bringing the book to life, the captivating moments are rare. Simply put, the book would have been better served as an exceptional short-film.
‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is one of the all time classic bedtime stories, but when it also puts you to sleep in the movie theater, that’s not a good sign.
03.3.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: PG-13 for some crude humor.
Release Date: 2009-10-30
Starring: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess
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Country:USA
Official Website: No disponible.
One of the worst movies of 2009 is Gentlemen Broncos.
Directed by Jared Hess, the creator of ‘Napoleon Dynamite’, the film revolves around a young writer whose novel is plagiarized by his favorite author.
The comedy is some of the more corniest I’ve seen in my life and the dialogue is ridiculous.
It is amazing that such horrific films as this continue to be created for the public consumption.
03.3.2010 | By Karen Posada |
Rated: PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language.
Release Date: 2009-11-13
Starring: Roland Emmerich & Harald Kloser
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/2012/
If you’ve seen the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” by the same director Roland Emmerich then you’ve seen most of “2012”. It is definitely what one expects after seeing the preview, a movie that has a lot of entertainment value because it is action packed, there is not much more to take from it.
Emmerich seems to be stuck in the same genre with the last couple of movies he’s made, movies about the apocalyptic end of the world, this one just adds to that agenda. Not only do they develop a similar plot but the characters also seem to be the same just played by different actors. The movie which lasts 2hrs and 35minutes has a slow beginning and then slowly builds up to the earth cracking and the world sinking in, to comply with a myth from the Mayan calendar about the end of the world. Putting the Mayan calendar into play gives it a good backbone but it is barely discussed in the film, giving a little more thought into it would have made the film less surreal and the ending less utopical and carefree. Our hero John Cusack (Jackson Curtis) was perfect for the role; he delivers every time and seems to be in control despite of the world falling around him. He is in charge of saving his family and what remains of the human race. Jackson is part of the broken family on which the film mainly focuses on; despite of the length of the film there’s not a real connection between these main characters. Amanda Peet (Kate Curtis) fails to convince me of her role as a caring mother. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Adrian Helmsley) who plays the all knowing scientist is pretty believable and takes on the role of leader with ease.
Emmerich wanted to make a film to entertain the audience and it does. The movie doesn’t drag but the fact that the world is ending and these few people are smarter than anyone else and are able to surpass a lot of the obstacles, made the film to me ridiculous to the point that I was laughing on scenes that I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to. If you still want to see the movie it might be best to watch it in the movie theater to appreciate the special effects, otherwise save yourself the money and rent any of Emmerich’s latest films.
03.3.2010 | By Jack Rico |
It’s finally here! Tim Burton’s new phantasmagorical Real-3D remake of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is shockingly a bore. All that eye-popping colorful imagery was just eye candy to sidetrack us from focusing on the anemic script adaptation. Even though it is one of Burton’s most beautiful films, it is not his best. This goes to show you that story is everything. The acting performances were vacuous and the entertainment value was surprisingly subpar. Will kids like it? Yeah sure, kids like almost anything that looks like a video game.
Burton’s adaptation centers around Alice (Mia Wasikowska), a young british teenager who falls down a tree hole and rediscovers all the marvels of a surreal place called Wonderland.
There is something to be said about the director’s need to create a movie that has been filmed so many times by so many people in so many countries. Does he think his version will be the definitive one? Disney might argue that. Burton is a remake master and there is a major flaw with that method of filmmaking – you are always going against the original, therefore your version will most likely always be weaker.
Alice in Wonderland is not funny or charming but a bit fatuous and insipid. It drags in various places especially in the beginning. Much of this tediousness is due to the bad acting of the female protagonist Mia Wasikowska. Talk about needing some acting classes. She was neither convincing nor surprised at anything, but rather seemed arrogant and spoiled. Mr. Eccentric himself, Johnny Depp, couldn’t hit the magical and funny strides of his predecessor Captain Jack Sparrow from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ The rest of the cast was mediocre at best, so was the whole movie.
On some high notes, the cinematography is outstanding, kudos to Dariusz Wolski for hitting a home run. The 3D experience was very fun, but any 3D film that comes out after Avatar is going to pale in comparison. Nevertheless, for those of you that rarely see three dimensional movies, it’s a trip and a half. The great moments are few and the yawning moments are plenty. If you think that the 3D scenes and the colorful visuals will be enough to amuse you, think again. The special glasses will start to weigh on you and the english accent will begin to annoy you. That’s what happens when a movie you think is going to be great turns out be a dud!
03.2.2010 | By Karen Posada |
Rated: PG for mild action and brief language.
Release Date: 2009-08-14
Starring: Hayao Miyazaki
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Country:Japan
Official Website: http://www.ghibli.jp/ponyo/
Ponyo turns from a sweet simple children’s story to a convoluted drama that is even hard for adults to follow. It does send out a good message though, of love and kindness towards the ocean, but the story revolves around too many surreal things that even for a children’s film is hard to get in tune with.
This new animated film by Hayao Miyazaki an Academy Award winner is a heartwarming film about a boy and his pet fish who fight the entire ocean, literally, to stay together. Its cast is composed mainly of stars from the Disney Channel such as Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas and Selena Gomez who is of Mexican background and surprisingly does a lot of the minor character’s voices. Some of the other big stars are Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson and Matt Damon who has a very small role in the film.
Seeing that the film had great success in Japan, there is potential for it to achieve the same results in the U.S., but the film’s turn from a simple story to a convoluted apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, may bore, confuse and disappoint many children. The film sticks close to its Japanese culture with minor elements to incorporate American viewers such as a change in a few character’s names. It is almost 2 hours long which will make it lose its intended audience after the first hour. Although it is a little too unreal at times and one has to struggle to not criticize, judge the story or some of the character’s actions, those who enjoy anime may still like the film even if just for its roots. The rest of you should just wait for it to come out on DVD.
03.2.2010 | By Karen Posada |
Rated: R for sexual content, brief nudity, some drug material and language.
Release Date: 2009-11-27
Starring: Rebecca Miller
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Country:USA
Official Website: www.pippalee.com
This is definitely a chick flick for smart viewers; the drama which drags most chick flicks is taken lightly and sprinkled with unsuspected moments of hilarity. I didn’t know exactly what to expect of it but I came out glad to have gone through Pippa’s journeys along with her.
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The film by director Rebecca Miller explores the life of Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) a suburban housewife who seems to have it all together and be leading the perfect life. Her husband (Alan Arkin) an accomplished publisher who is 30 years older than her decides to move them out of NYC to a retirement community in Connecticut. Pippa as the perfect wife follows willingly, although we get a sense there’s something stirring within her that’s about to explode. She begins the narration of the life she has led up to the point where she met her current husband. We start seeing Pippa’s troubled past and wonder how she is so together in her present, but a series of weird occurrences take place which make everything fall in place. As her retired husband decides he can’t live in complete retirement she fills her time with activities and meets a younger man (Keanu Reeves), they begin to help each other through their paths of self-discovery.
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Blake Lively from ‘Gossip Girl’ plays the younger version of Pippa Lee, her character’s fun, sensual personality combined with her innocence makes us want to help her out of the hole she digs herself into. Younger Pippa loves her mother (Maria Bello) but as she grows up she realizes her household is not what she thought it was, her mother’s addiction to drugs and her father’s (a priest) indifference takes her life for a spin. Â
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These great actors are part of a puzzle that forms a beautifully imperfect picture. All the funny moments make the dramatic plot easy to watch without feeling overwhelmed or sad. Seeing how Pippa’s life turns out despite the complicated “lives†she’s led is delightful, seeing her come in to her own and finally realizing that there was no need to make a perfect persona but that accepting herself and the fact that life is full of surprises was the answer, gives us an uplifting conclusion.
02.25.2010 | By Namreta Kumar |
“A Prophet,” is a remarkable fictional film about some of the hard facts of life. Everything from the screenplay to execution is etched out to near perfection. Jacques Audiard brings to life the compelling voice of an “Arab” man in a French prison.
Malik El Djebena (Tahir Rahim) is a young petty criminal who is tried as an adult, for the first time, and sent to prison. He quickly learns that he cannot live out his sentence in silence and must adapt to the two communities, he does not belong to, within. Audiard lends his strong sense of direction and voice to the reality of the duality of Malik’s world.
Tahar Rahim, Malik, guides the audience through this rather confusing world. Rahim’s awkward presence resonates well with his character and audience. As fact after fact of the world around him becomes present to him Rahim’s awkward presence soon becomes his strength. He becomes a rather unlikely hero in a world where he is often depicted as an observer.
Unfortunately that is also where the flaw of the film presents itself. As much as I may have enjoyed the refreshing storytelling, it was also a little too much work. As a removed audience member it is sometimes difficult to keep pace with the extensive amount of information packed into the final chapters of the film. Audiard created Malik’s world with precision and pace, however the turnover is rapid, hard to follow, and overall rushed.
Nonetheless what resonates is the rather telling story of a prophet in prison. “A Prophet,” is one academy award nominated film that is truly worth the hype.
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